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1987 van, 302, engine dies

I have an 87 van with 302 engine. It runs fine but will die at any given time (loss of ignition). Sometimes it will start, run at idle for several seconds, then die. The last time it died was going down the road at 60 MPH. Sometimes it will start back up. One time I pulled the timing spigot from the ignition module and it started up, then I replaced the spigot and it started again and ran well for more than 300 miles. I have replaced the coil and am on my 3rd ignition module in around

750 miles. The last one checked good but I tried a new one anyway, same problem. Now I am looking for ghosts. Has anyone had this problem before and how is the best way to troubleshoot this?

TIA

Reply to
Nobody Important
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I had a '74 Mustang II that did the same thing. I finally narrowed it down to the small wire that supplies power to the coil. Actually, I found it accidentally- I was working on something else with the engine running, and inadvertently moved the wire and the engine quit. Found that it was broken under the insulation. Cut the push-on connector off and put on a crimp terminal and nut. Good luck, SC Tom

Reply to
SC Tom

I once had the same problem with a '72 Ford van. The problem was inside the distributor.... as I recall the condenser wire was grounding to the body of the distributor. It ended up costing absolutely nothing to fix, I just taped the wire with electrical tape, but finding the problem was a nightmare.... Hope this helps

Reply to
johnH

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